There is no courage without fear.

If there’s nothing to lose, there’s nothing to gain.

Ooh, I just made that up.

I’ve written (accidentally) several times about how I was happier / more proud / more excited to make $xxx than $x,xxx doing something that I loved. Or maybe I wrote an article and made a tenth of the money I might consulting for a client. Part of that is because what I did for $300 was “scarier” than what I did for $3,000.

What does scary have to do with anything? Isn’t that reserved for horror movies?

We only fear what we care about.

It takes zero courage for me to, ha, OK, I’ll make this timely and relevant: say no to a new client. Why? Because I don’t really want new (website) clients. Someone just getting started would be shocked, horrified at the thought of saying no to a prospective client. But it’s easy for me because I don’t really want it. It doesn’t take courage for me to say no because I don’t fear the outcome.

What my dear friend was saying was that true courage only exists with angst and we really only fear what we want or care about losing. So we don’t really have courage for somethings that we’re not scared about. It doesn’t take courage (for me) to say no to a client–even though someone else thinks it’s courageous.

So the question is simple: what do you fear?

What courage can you muster to overcome that fear?

Here’s my favorite post on the topic (and what to do about it): List Your Fears.

Oh, by the way, the challenge isn’t an easy one. If you want an easy challenge, go ahead and gather up the courage to do something you don’t fear. Oops, forgot, you don’t need any courage for that!